The necessity of a Palm Tree
by BouncingLeek
Summary: The Doctor and the Master are standing on a beach, silently fighting over captivity and openly arguing over the stability of sand castles. Set after The Last of The Timelords, AU from there, where the Master would still be alive and with the Doctor.


This a fic full of first times. It's my first finished work about Doctor Who, but also my first written completly in English, which is not my first language. I didn't manage to find a beta, so if there's anything wrong, or completly grammatically incorrect, please tell me and I'll change it ! :)

This fic was supposed to be much lighter than it is, but somewhere in the middle of writing it, it felt right to add some bitterness. I'm not sure about the result, being always very critical towards my work, but I hope it'll please you :)

* * *

"This isn't going to work, you know ?"

The Doctor teared his eyes away frome the horizon, and focused his attention on a small peeble at his feet. Pushing it gently with the tip of his shoe, he tried to bring it as near as possible to the water.  
When the next wave came, he looked pensively at the peeble, washed away from the beach by an invisble force. The cry of the seagull flying by almost drowned his answer.

"I know."

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, his eyes taking in his surroundings. Then he turned aroud rather brutally, and faced the Master.

"But we could try, you know ? We could. You know... Try. At least. It's not difficult, trying. And we can fail, because that's the point of trying, isn't it ? You fail, but it does'nt matter, because you tried. For a little while. Don't you think ? Just...try ?"

The Master looked at him pointedly for a few seconds, before lowering his eyes to the wall of the TARDIS he was leaning on, and resuming his task of picking a little shred of wood that was peeling away.  
He could feel the intent gaze of the other Timelord on him, but he definitely wasn't going to play along with his game, whatever it was.

A huff of frustration was heard a moment later, and he could almost perfectly imagine the Doctor ruffle his hair and bounce around in a desperate attempt to release the pression that was building up in his brain at the moment. He also knew what was coming next. The nearly manic phase where the Doctor would list all the things that they could do, all the places where they could go. And after that the pleading. The loneliness speaking. And in the end, when everything else would have been tried out, then, and only then, would come the threats. How he could lock him up for the rest of their lifes, even if it meant forsaking their happiness.

The Master knew all of that. It seemed like they were stucked in some kind of temporal loop since two weeks, when the Doctor had picked him up and ran away with the TARDIS, far from those insignificant little humans. It had been the same speech, the same words, the same intonations, again and again.  
And again and again, The Master had refused to budge, refused to even gratify all this tantrum with an answer. He was not going to lie in order to please the Doctor. And he certainly wasn't going to stay, in some kind of disguised imprisonment.

So he was really unprepared when a calm, almost cheery voice reached his ears and made him jerk his head up rather abruptly.

"What ?"

The Doctor looked up from where he was crouching on the ground, eyes glistening with something that could have almost passed for happiness, and repeated :

"I said, do you remember when we used to build sand castles ?"

The Master shook his head, closing his eyes in exasperation. What kind of new game was this ? After a few moment of thought, he decided not to answer. Better to see first where the other one was going.

"We were always trying to recreate the Citadel, do you remember ? With the towers, and the bridges, and all of this. And you ! You came up with the idea to use small twigs to do the bridges. Brilliant idea !"

The Doctor had taken on building a small tower out of the wet sand, and was looking for seashells to strenghten the foundations. He paused a moment, frowning.

"I don't actually remember finishing one of those Citadels. Did we finish one ? If I recall correctly, there were a lot of accidents, particulary with the Great Tower. Oh yes ! It was you, wasn't it ? Always accidentally punching down the Great Tower !"

- No, it was you. All the time. You. Kicking it down because you wanted to add palm trees to the Bridge of Serenity.

- Well, they were palm trees on the Bridge of Serenity ! It had to be done !

- You could have been a little more p..."

The Master stopped dead in the middle of his sentence. Since when had he decided to answer ? He mentally scolded himself for this few moments of distraction. He was never going to hear the end of it. The Doctor was looking up at him, cheekiness written all over his face. And, if he wasn't mistaking, a little bit of smugness too.

"Gotcha !"

"Yeah, well... Such a great victory for the almighty Doctor !"

Rolling his eyes, The Master pushed himself up and walked towards the other Timelord. Glancing down coldly at the fragile little construction that was growing rapidly under the swift hands of the Doctor, he paused a moment before carelessly kicking it with his right foot.

"Oi ! There was no need for that !"

- Yes, there was.

- Just because you're a bad loser doesn't mean you have to destroy everything around you ! It's always been the same with you. If you can't have it, or if it's not of your creation, it might as well be inexistent ! Sometimes, I think you're completly hopeless.

- About time you realized that..."

The two Timelords exchanged a long cold stare, before The Doctor broke the eye contact and began fidgeting with the little crushed seashells. He was trying to find all the broken pieces in the messy pile of sand with the apparent, if not impossible, task of putting them back together. On the third failed attempt, he let them fall at his feet, and sat back heavily in the sand, a clear look of defeat on his face.  
The Master snorted a bit.

"You can't fix everything."

- Shut up.

- That's your problem. You're always trying to fix things up. Sometimes, it's no use. Sometimes, there isn't anything you can do. Sometimes, it's better to leave them be. To let them go.

- Shut up !

- Times were, you had a better comeback to my speeches."

The Master was eyeing the other intently, waiting for a more consequent answer. Waiting for the beginning of a heated discussion. Looking for a conflict he was certain he would win. Instead of that, the Doctor closed his eyes, pu his head in his hands and sighed deeply. Taken aback, the other Timelord shuffled slightly and after a brief moment of indecision, began to draw random lines in the sand with his shoe. He waited a bit, but there was still no reaction coming from the other. No tugging at the hair, no babble, no Oncoming Storm look. Just cold indifference. Or was it exhaustion ? Getting nervous, the Master tried to get some attention by making more noise. He moved around, stepping on empty shells that made a nice cracking sound under the leather soles, but it was rewarded by no acknowledgment at all.  
Finally, and only because the silence was becoming a little too heavy, he coughed a bit and blurted out the first sentence that came through his head.

"I didn't destroy it for nothing. The fourth pillar was weak. It would have fallen when you would have added the little flag on the top."

Mentally kicking himself for saying such a lame thing, the Master turned around and faced the horizon, trying to avoid as much as possible to meet the Doctor's eyes that were probably scanning him right now. Of course, he did have had to go with the only thing that could almost pass for an apology. Like it would help him with his projects. Making the Doctor believe that he was sorry was really not the best way to convince him to let him go. His huff of irritation drowned the sound of the light footsteps of the Doctor, who was walking toward him. They stood shoulder to shoulder for a moment, without saying anything, before the Doctor broke the silence.

"Care to help me with the building of a giant Citadel ?"

The Master shrugged, hesitant. Was it a good idea ? Should he, for once, stop fighting everything and go along with what was in front of him ? Oh, and to hell with it !

"Alright. One condition, though !"

- Yeah ?

- No palm trees. At all.

- But it's not the same thing without the palm trees !

- I'll put them in place, then. You're not approaching the Great Tower with your big hands.

- I don't have bi...

- Shut up.

- Bossy."

The Master let out a hearty bark of laughter, and began to walk towards the small bushes that were lining the beach. The Doctor remained behind, a sudden pensive look on his face. He hesitated a bit, putting his hands in his pockets before taking them out again. Finally, he seemed to make up his mind and called out loud.

"Master !"

He saw the other one turn around and look at him questionningly.

"Yeah ?"

"You can go. If you want. You can... you know, go. Just tell me. I can drop you everywhere. Just... Well, you tell me."

The Master swallowed heavily, staring into the distance. Silent for a few moments, he then turned his attention back to the Doctor.

"Yeah. Right. Okay. We'll see. But we've got to build a Citadel before."


End file.
